title: Comment on "Global convergence in the temperature sensitivity of respiration at ecosystem level".
abstract: Mahecha et al. (Reports, 13 August 2010, p. 838) estimated the temperature sensitivity of ecosystem respiration (Q(10)) and showed that temperature sensitivity and its site-to-site variability are lower than previously reported. We demonstrate that their Q(10) value of 1.4 is an underestimate if interpreted as the averaged sensitivities of all ecosystem components, because fast temperature fluctuations penetrate poorly into the soil.
authors.affiliation: Forschungszentrum Juelich, Agrosphere Institute (IBG-3), Institute for Bio- and Geosciences, Juelich, Germany. a.graf@fz-juelich.de
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Graf
authors.forename: Lutz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Weihermüller
authors.forename: Johan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Huisman
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herbst
authors.forename: Harry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Vereecken
mesh_terms: D018533:Biomass; D019069:Cell Respiration; D017753:Ecosystem; D010101:Oxygen Consumption; D012987:Soil / Q000032:analysis; D013696:Temperature
chemical_list: D012987:Soil